MOTOR RACING : O’Mara: From Power to Pedal

After 11 years as one of the world’s best motocross riders, Johnny O’Mara is changing careers.

O’Mara, of Simi Valley, has retired from racing motorcycles to racing mountain bicycles. He will turn 30 on March 25.

“I think there is a great future in mountain racing, and I’m still in great shape physically to become a part of it, the way I was with motocross,” O’Mara said. “I’ve been training for several years by riding mountain bikes, so I’m familiar with them. There’s really a lot of carryover from one to the other, although the bicycles may be more demanding because I have to supply all the power.”

O’Mara will ride for the Yeti Mountain Bicycle Co. of Thousand Oaks in a nationwide schedule that includes races at Big Bear Lake June 15-16 and Mammoth Lakes July 17-21.

His motocross career didn’t end exactly the way O’Mara had planned. He had hoped to race Saturday night in the Camel Supercross series at Anaheim Stadium--an event he won in 1984 en route to the national championship--and announce his retirement in Victory Circle.

But he won’t be in the race. On Dec. 29, in an invitational motocross at Perris Raceway, O’Mara fell and broke his shoulder.

“I still hope to be strong enough to ride a slow lap on my Kawasaki during intermission,” he said.

Omar, as he is known to fellow riders, also will be presented the 1990 Mickey Thompson Award of Excellence by Camel, sponsor of the American Motorcyclist Assn.’s Supercross series. The award is based on voting by fans in a ballot conducted by the editors of Cycle News.

“That award means a lot to me, as much as any race I ever won,” O’Mara said. “It’s special because it shows me that people like what I’ve been doing. It tops off a great career. I had seven years with Honda, three with Suzuki and last year with Kawasaki and think I accomplished a good deal. I know I enjoyed it all.”

O’Mara first burst on the motocross scene in 1980 as a brash teen-ager from Van Nuys, with long blond hair and a wispy mustache. He won the United States Grand Prix 125cc championship at Mid-Ohio while riding an epoxy-white motorcycle and wearing matching white leathers outside his white boots. European reporters called him America’s “White Knight.”

He was only a year out of Birmingham High School, where his classmates included Lance King and Rick Miller, who went on to become world-class speedway motorcycle racers.

The U.S. Grand Prix victory earned O’Mara a spot on Honda’s factory team in 1981, and he and three other riders--Donnie Hansen, Chuck Sun and Danny LaPorte--stunned the motocross world by upsetting Belgium, the homeland of motocross, in the 250cc Trophee des Nations and the 500cc Motocross des Nations. It was the first victory for a U.S. team, and it came against a Belgian team that included world champions Andre Malherbe, Georges Jobe and Eric Geboers--on their home track.

“That was probably the biggest thrill I ever had racing,” O’Mara said. “There I was, just a long-haired kid from California racing for his country in front of the most knowledgeable fans in the world, and we won. I’d never even ridden a ‘500’ bike before.

“I think the only person who thought we had a chance was Roger DeCoster (five-time world champion from Belgium who coached the U. S. team). I was the youngest guy on the team and the least known, but I led both motos.”

O’Mara later was a member of winning U. S. teams in 1982, ’84 and ‘86, but in those events the Americans were favored and O’Mara was a known factor.

He also won the 1983 125cc national championship and the 1985 U.S. Grand Prix for 250cc bikes. In 1984, O’Mara started the Supercross season with a victory at Anaheim and also won at Atlanta, Dallas, Pontiac, Mich., and Buffalo, N.Y., to take the championship on a Honda. His last Supercross victory came at the Rose Bowl in 1985.

“I think I can still win in motocross, but when Kawasaki wouldn’t give me full factory support and no other team came forward with a similar offer, I decided it was time to quit,” O’Mara said. “I had decided early in my career that I didn’t want to ride if I didn’t have the same equipment as the factory riders, and while Kawasaki offered me bikes and some support, it wouldn’t have been the same as they had for Jeff Ward and the other guys.”

O’Mara rode one of his finest races last August in the U.S. Grand Prix 500cc race at Glen Helen Park, chasing world champion Eric Geboers for 40 minutes in one of the most exciting motos seen on the West Coast.

“That was one of the toughest races I’ve ever ridden,” Geboers said after edging O’Mara on the hillside course north of San Bernardino. “I was out of control, I was riding so hard to keep O’Mara behind me. I’m exhausted.”

O’Mara also finished fourth in last year’s final Supercross at the Coliseum, chasing Damon Bradshaw, the latest teen-age sensation from Charlotte; Jean-Michel Bayle, a Frenchman who lives in Redondo Beach; and Mike Kiedrowski across the finish line. Curiously, Kiedrowski, who switched from Honda to Kawasaki this year, took O’Mara’s factory ride.

“I like Bayle (to win) Saturday night, and he’s my pick for the series championship, too,” O’Mara said. “Jeff Stanton, who trains with me in Simi Valley, will be awful tough after winning two championships in a row, but I don’t know if he can hold off Bayle. Then I’d rate Bradshaw next. Rick Johnson must still be bothered by his wrist, and I don’t think he will be competitive in stadium races--but look out for him outdoors. I wouldn’t be surprised if he won a national championship again outdoors.”

Stanton won the opening Supercross at Orlando, Fla., two weeks ago, and Bayle won last Saturday night at Houston.

DRAG RACING--Former funny car driver Tom (Mongoose) McEwen is coming out of retirement to drive a top-fuel dragster for baseball star Jack Clark’s new Mobil 1 team. The car will make its debut this weekend in the Budweiser Big West Warm-Up at Bakersfield Raceway. Among McEwen’s competition will be National Hot Rod Assn. champion Joe Amato, Winternationals winner Lori Johns, Don Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein and Frank Hawley, driving for the paralyzed Darrell Gwynn. NHRA runner-up Gary Ormsby crashed his top fueler last week in Phoenix and is doubtful.

OFF-ROAD--The SCORE Parker 400 will open the desert racing season Saturday, but the defending champion, Ivan Stewart, will not be there. Stewart and Toyota reportedly are concentrating on developing a 1992 truck and will run only the two Baja races and the Nissan 400 in Nevada. However, Stewart’s success in driving a truck in the unlimited class has caused Walker Evans (Dodge), Jack Johnson (Jeep Cherokee) and Danny Letner (Chevrolet) to build pickups to race against the desert buggies. The 359-mile race will consist of three loops on the Arizona side of the Colorado River.

SPRINT CARS--The California Racing Assn. schedule, which has revolved around Ascot Park every season since it was organized, will have a new look this year. With Ascot no longer around, the nearest thing for the CRA will be Manzanita Speedway, a half-mile clay oval in Phoenix, where 11 of the 46 CRA main events will be held. Twelve races are scheduled on a Midwestern tour with stops in Kansas, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. The season will open on Feb. 2 at Manzanita.

MISCELLANY--Creighton Hunter, one of the founders of the original Santa Ana drag strip on what is now the John Wayne Airport, will hold his sixth annual Santa Ana Drags Reunion Saturday at the Elks Lodge No. 749 in Santa Ana. . . . The third round of the Coors/Kawasaki motocross series is scheduled Saturday night at Ventura Raceway.